


Language Barrier

by VideoGameImagines



Series: Language Barrier [1]
Category: Uncharted
Genre: F/M, Gen, Reader-Insert, reader - Freeform, uncharted - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 01:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6174865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VideoGameImagines/pseuds/VideoGameImagines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt Request: The request was for a Nathan Drake X Reader story where Drake goes off on an adventure alone and he happens to find the reader, a native to the island he’s on, half dead and in need of help. It was also requested that the reader and Drake don’t speak the other’s language so they can’t understand each other but somehow Drake gets the reader to join him on his adventure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Language Barrier

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello again! I’m back with another awesome prompt given to me by a lovely anonymous Tumblr user for the Uncharted series. The request was for a Nathan Drake X Reader story where Drake goes off on an adventure alone and he happens to find the reader, a native to the island he’s on, half dead and in need of help. It was also requested that the reader and Drake don’t speak the other’s language so they can’t understand each other but somehow Drake gets the reader to join him on his adventure. Forgive me because while I do speak other languages I wanted everyone to be able to understand the reader’s thoughts so when the reader speaks or thinks it will be in English but to Drake it will all be gibberish. (In case anyone one was wondering the language the reader is “speaking” is Quechua, it’s a language of Incan origin that is still spoken in this particular region of Peru, where the story takes place.) Also this story won’t be following the events of any of the games so I took some creative liberties in making up an adventure for Drake. So Drake has found evidence of the existence of Paititi, a legendary lost city of Incan Legend, the city was thought to be a land rich in silver, gold, and jewels. Supposedly from what I’ve researched some accounts say that Paititi is located in the rainforests of southeastern Peru and I thought that having Drake’s plane crash here would be a cool setting for this story. Warning: Some Violence and blood ahead! Disclaimer: I do not own the Uncharted series! I hope you all enjoy the story (Especially the lovely and incredibly supportive Anon who sent me this prompt!)

Your feet were pounding against the hardened earth of the rainforest floor as you took off at a break neck speed towards the scene of plane crash. In these past few days several planes had been flying in and out of the area which was odd considering that you didn’t get very many visitors and even the neighboring villages closer to shore had seen several unfamiliar ships just off the coast. There was even more troubling news from another village just to the East that reported several well-armed men marching through the rainforest in the cover of night. The news was certainly distressing because if those men turned their ire to any of the villages they could easily tear your people apart. Truthfully you didn’t have the weapons or capable soldiers to put up much of a fight.   
Aside from that troubling news minutes ago just after sunset a plane was losing altitude fast and crashed into the rainforest just south of your village. Thankfully the crash site was unpopulated and you had rather hoped no one had been harmed. But that is what prompted you to take off into the rainforest; your bow and quiver of arrows bounced relentlessly on your back and you ran through the thick foliage. You also had a small handgun strapped to your thigh but you preferred the bow and arrow because you were a much better shot with it and arrows were far easier to come by than bullets. However, it was getting dark and you weren’t entirely sure that you could make it back to your village before the last rays of light disappeared on the horizon.   
You pulled yourself to an abrupt stop and looked up into the canopy of thick foliage spotting several chunks of twisted metal that spat thick smoke into the air. You decided to climb the tree and take a look at the pilot’s seat but to your relief it was empty and hopefully that meant that whoever was piloting this thing was alive and well. You nimbly climbed back down the tree and landed on the ground with a soft thud. Suddenly you had this overwhelming sense of dread and it felt as if you were being watched. To your right there was a snap of a twig and you turned around successively slinging an arrow into your bow pulling tight, elbow barely grazing your chin. You saw something metallic glint in the darkness and suddenly a bullet flew by just missing your head but splintering the bark of the tree next to you.  
Unexpectedly you saw a small group of men carrying rifles coming towards you so you jumped behind a nearby rock and fired your bow twice in rapid succession. Booth arrows found their mark and you popped you head out slightly to get a look at your attackers you counted five but it was getting darker and the possibility that there were more men hiding in the shadows was entirely probable. You drew another arrow and trained it on another enemy who quickly dove out of the way but his leg was now exposed so you lined up the shot quickly and the arrow sunk deep into his thigh. He sprawled out on the ground screaming out in agony but one more carefully aimed arrow silenced him.   
The trees around you were exploding into clouds of smoke and the four remaining men were screaming at each other in a language that was foreign to your ears. When you jumped up from behind the rock to sink another arrow into your enemy you noticed more men coming into view from what you could see it was about six more men; all coming to aid of their comrades. You noticed that one man was pulling what looked like a grenade from his pocket you aimed your arrow with care and in the blink of an eye it was sailing through the air right on target. Just as the pin was pulled your arrow hit man in the dead center of his hand causing him to fumble the grenade and drop it on the ground in front of him causing a massive explosion.   
You took the moment of confusion to run away from your remaining foes because you were low on arrows and your handgun could only do so much. So you quickly slung your bow over your shoulder and grabbed the handgun from your holster taking off deeper into the rainforest… you couldn’t go back to your village otherwise they would surely be slaughtered. So you changed course and headed for this small secluded cave that you often sought refuge in when you went hunting. You were running as fast as your legs could carry you but suddenly it’s as if time slowed down and a white hot pain tore through your midsection causing you to fall to the ground in agony. You carefully placed your hand on your stomach and pulled back your hand to look at it. Your vision was already becoming cloudy but you could still make out the bright red outline of your blood soaked hand.   
You could vaguely hear men shouting words that you couldn’t understand and a volley of gunfire being exchanged which had you vaguely worrying over whether or not the men from before had happened upon some of your fellow villagers. You wanted to get up and protect your village to save them from the unnecessary bloodshed but you couldn’t move and everything just felt so heavy. And then it was quiet you heard nothing except the cautious footsteps of a single person. You heard a voice calling out to you but you just couldn’t understand what it was trying to say. You felt as if you were being lifted up and then you felt almost weightless as if you were floating. But that was quickly replaced by the overwhelming force of darkness and then nothing.

 

You opened your eyes carefully and realized that you were lying on the cold floor of your familiar hunting cave a fire was burning at the mouth of the cave and outside you noticed that day was breaking. You startled out of your reverie when you remembered that you hadn’t gotten here on your own and you sat up far too quickly and your midsection screamed in protest. The searing pain caused you to cry out and you looked down at your stomach to find it was wrapped in strips of unfamiliar cloth but you realized that it was no longer bleeding. You gingerly moved the pieces of cloth out of the way and noticed that skin around your wound looked rather red and angry; the wound must have been sealed by fire. How could you have not felt that? More importantly, who did that?  
There was a shuffling noise by the mouth of the cave and you whipped around to take a look at who was entering. A tall man with slightly tanned skin and tousled black hair entered the cave and when he noticed you his eyes widened and he gave you an uneasy smile. You noticed the handgun strapped to his side and the rifle on his back and the sight of his weapons you scurried backwards and your midsection was screaming in protest. The man raised his hands up defensively, “Hey, hey it’s okay… I’m not going to hurt you.”  
What the hell? You couldn’t understand a word that was coming out of his mouth whatever language that he was speaking you couldn’t understand it. You continued to scurry backwards until your back hit the wall of the cave. The man looked at you quizzically and followed your gaze towards his holstered weapons and he nodded gently and reached for them. You were panicking now looking all around the cave for some sort of weapon but the stranger cleared his throat. He made a grand show of removing his weapons and pushing them off to the side and walking away from them. He looked at you and inched closer, “Hey easy now it’s okay I’m not going to hurt you. Technically I am the one that found you after I took out those mercenaries. I am sorry about having to cauterize your wound but you were bleeding too heavily.”  
You just stared at him wildly, what the hell was he saying? You knew this was going out on a limb but maybe he would understand your language. You looked right at him, “Listen I have no idea what you’re saying but who are you? What are you doing here? And who were those men?”  
The man in front of you looked taken aback and his eyes widened and he looked at you, “Shit… you don’t speak English do you? God I knew my plane crashed somewhere over Peru but I don’t even understand that dialect.”  
You couldn’t understand what this man was saying but without the presence of his weapons you felt slightly more at ease but you still couldn’t trust this man. He eyed you warily and scratched his head, “Okay I am going to try something… my name is Nathan Drake… Drake…”  
The man kept motioning towards himself and repeating the same phrase which you pieced together was his name so you tried saying it back, “Drake.” He smiled at you and for a second you thought that he looked incredibly handsome when he did. Wait where did that come from? You tried to shut that small thought out of your mind and motioned toward yourself, “Y/N…Y/N.”  
He repeated it back to you, “Y/N… that’s a beautiful name. You’re incredibly beautiful too and I can say that without worrying because you don’t seem to understand a word I’m saying.” He suddenly laughed probably to himself, “It’s probably a good thing that Sully didn’t come with me on this one. He would probably be sitting here trying to flirt with you despite the language barrier and he can be persistent.”   
You knew that he wouldn’t understand you but the words needed to be said, “I can’t understand what you are saying but I believe you saved me so I am thankful for that. Thank you, Drake.”  
His eyes lit up when you said his name and he sighed, “I really shouldn’t have taken the bait on this one but an old acquaintance of mine, his name’s Jackson, just waves the mention of a Lost Incan civilization in my face and here I am. God Sully was right to call this one a lost cause. And… you can’t understand a word I’m saying so I’m basically one step above talking to myself right now.”  
A part of you wished that you could understand him so you could at least establish some sort of trust and figure out why the hell he was here. Suddenly Drake sighed and pulled a small leather journal from his back pocket and began flipping through the pages, “The lost city of Paititi… what a load of shit.”  
Paititi? That part you did understand you remembered the old tales that were passed down through the generations. Supposedly ages ago a city of untold wealth was discovered and subsequently lost but those were just stories. This inability to understand him was getting on your nerves was getting on your nerves but you hoped that some legend was why he was here. You tried to catch a glimpse of his journal, “Paititi, are here chasing some legend of a lost city?”  
His eyes lit up when you said the word Paititi, “You’ve heard of this legend? Do you know something about Paititi?”  
Yeah you still couldn’t understand him but you held out your hand silently asking for permission to look at his journal. He cautiously handed it to you and you looked at the map spread out on two pages of the journal. You couldn’t read any of the words written on it but you noticed that the marker on the map wasn’t too far away from where your village was located. Come to think of it your uncle spent portion of his younger years traveling the world and he spoke a few different languages. Maybe he knew whatever language Drake was speaking and could somehow start communicating. It was a long shot but your options right now were really limited.  
You carefully nodded at Drake handing him back his journal and moving to stand up which had you wincing but Drake was there to help you up. You gave him a small smile and pointed to the spot where your village was and pointed to yourself, “This is my village follow me…”  
You began walking towards the mouth of the cave and motioning for Drake to follow you and he seemed to understand and he began collecting his things. Drake cleared his throat and held out your bow and quiver, “I ah think these are yours… I found them next to you when you were unconscious. This one too.” And with that you had your bow, some arrows, and your gun back.   
You were starting to feel a little safer but at this moment you needed to get back to your uncle and see if you could sort this linguistic nightmare out. You and Drake walked toward your village in relative silence but in your current situation you didn’t really have any other options. You were coming up on your village when suddenly got distracted by some old ruins but what he didn’t see was that he was about to set off a trap on one of the trees. You quickly grabbed his shoulder and yanked him out of the way just in time, “Drake stop!”  
The spike trap swung out and barely missed Drake he looked bewildered but he looked at you, ”Shit that was close… Thank you, Y/N.” You let out a sigh of relief and continued on the path toward your village.   
You entered your village earning wary glances from everyone but your eyes searched through the crowds until you found the person you were looking for. You smiled, “Uncle, thank goodness. I need your help you speak different languages can you find out what this man wants.”  
Your uncle eyed you and Drake carefully, “Y/N, who is this? Why did you bring him to our village?”  
You sighed, “Uncle, this man saved me from a group of invaders that nearly killed me but I cannot understand the words that he speaks. Can you try to communicate with him?”  
Your Uncle nodded and approached Drake and much to your surprise the two men began communicate with each other. Drake suddenly became very animated motioning around him with his arms and then he pulled his journal out and showed it to your Uncle. After a minute Drake looked at you and pointed you out to your uncle your uncle simply nodded and walked over to you.  
You uncle took a breath and looked at you, “He is from America and he is here seeking the lost city of Paititi but he is not the only one seeking the city. There is an old temple just east of our village that he believes holds the key to entering Paititi. However, he wants you to go with him.”  
Your eyes nearly bulged out of your head, “What did you say uncle? We can’t even understand each other how am I meant to even trust him?”  
Your uncle nodded, “Being skeptical is a good thing but he says that he trusts you and he wants to have someone to help him through the lands. You don’t have to go with him, Y/N. It is your choice.”  
You thought it over and sighed internally, “Yes it is my choice and I am choosing to go with him. He saved my life once and if he wants me to go on his journey with him then I feel I owe him that much. Uncle do you think you could translate that to him?” This would either be the best or the worst decision of your life.


End file.
